Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day, June 2016

On this bloom day I am going to focus on the most exciting bloom in my garden, the one that I catch passerby snapping photos of on their phones.

On May 1st I noticed that my Dasylirion texanum was starting to form a bloom spike. I didn't even realize that they bloom!

I planted it in May of 2012, when it was just a wee thing. I got it at the Rare Plant Research sale. It's sited in a sharp-draining gravel berm in full sun, facing dead south.

Dasylirion is polycarpic so, unlike agave, it should be able to survive after blooming. Reports on the internet are sparse but it seems these can bloom every four years or so. Lance at Garden Riots reports that he has lost dasylirion after blooming, so my fingers are crossed. This is probably my very favorite plant in my garden and I'd be so bummed if I had to replace it.

On May 7th, one week later:

Here we are on May 19th, two and a half weeks after I noticed the bloom stalk. It grew quickly, adding noticeable height on a daily basis.

On June 5th the blooms began to emerge.

June 8th.

June 12th

And June 15th, about six weeks after I first noticed the bloom spike.

The bloom spike topped out at just over 12' from the base of the plant. The base of the plant is showing some yellowing, which I hope is normal and not a sign of the plant dying.

The hum of the bees covering this thing is audible from the driveway, which is pretty cool.

Happy bloom day! As always, a big thanks to Carol, our host at May Dreams Gardens.

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day April 2016

I love April. Our front garden is dressed like a pretty pretty princess.

 

Cornus florida and Camassia leichtlinii 'Blue Danube'

Othonna cheirifolia

Sedum parmeri

Gaultheria Shallon

Myosotis sylvatica 'Victoria Blue'

Loropetalum chinensis 'Sizzling Pink'

Convallaria majalis

Prosartes hookeri

Disporum cantoniense 'Night Heron'

Maianthemum racemosum

Camassia leichtlinii 'Blue Danube'

 

Lewisia cotyledon

Tulipa 'Black Parrot'

Lewisia cotyledon 'White Splendor'

A happy bloom day to you and thank you to Carol, our host at May Dreams Gardens!

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day March 2016

This March feels less floriferous than usual, I think because we had such an usually early spring last year. The hellebores are still going and the daphne is winding down.

Mahonia nervosa

Arctostaphylos x 'John Dourley'

Geranium macrorrhizum

Arctostaphylos bakeri 'Louis Edmonds'

Epimedium

Epimedium x 'Black Sea'

Pieris japonica

Mukdenia rossii 'Crimson Fans'

A happy bloom day to you! Thanks to our host, Carol.

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day February 2016

A very happy bloom day to you!

Euphorbia rigida

Euphorbia x 'Blackbird'

Helleborus x 'Black Diamond'

Daphne odora 'Aureomarginata'

Helleborus x ballardiae 'HCG Cinnamon Snow'

And the "good god, you're STILL blooming?" award goes to Mahonia x media 'Arthur Menzies,' which has been blooming since October.

Mahonia x media 'Arthur Menzies'

I'm getting excited for things to really start firing up next month. Thanks, as always, to our hostess Carol at May Dreams Gardens.

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day January 2016

Happy new year! I've been pretty content that it's winter. I know a lot of people hate winter and I know the weather sucks, but do you know about butter and parmesan? Cooking rich, satisfying food and watching a lot of TV? Hot toddies and snowshoeing? Going for long walks when it's very cold and feeling very virtuous? I don't think winter is so bad, especially since it's so mild here.

The other day I ran across some photos of my garden in April and I got excited to garden and now I'm actually looking forward to spring. It's still a ways off, so I'll be over here with my bowl of ragù and my Netflix. It's not so bad.

My mahonias are still going, which means we have lots of hummingbirds.

Mahonia x 'Charity'

 This witch hazel smells so good I feel like my neighbors should be thanking me.

Hamamelis I. 'Early Bright'

This silly self-seeded Calendula

And the award for bloomiest year-round performer goes to Othonna cheirifolia. Even under snow it was blooming.

Othonna cheirifolia

Happy bloom day! Thanks to our host Carol, over at May Dreams Gardens.

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day December 2015

The Meiji shinto shrine in Tokyo

At the end of October Greg and I flew to Japan for our honeymoon. We had one full perfect day in Tokyo under our belts when I got a call that my brother had passed away unexpectedly in his sleep. He was 42 and an exceptionally good human being. We are completely devastated by the loss of him. I think almost everyone knows this already (and you've all been so nice, thank you for that) but I'm posting it here for those last far-flung friends of mine who don't have a Facebook account. (Which is so annoying, guys. Everyone is on there; please get an account already.) In-person social interactions are exhausting and I can't handle talking on the phone, so I find myself very grateful for social media, which has allowed me to interact with the living without getting out of sweatpants or this fort I've made from used kleenex.

I am also grateful for my mahonias, which are bright, cheery beacons in the winter.

Mahonia x media 'Arthur Menzies'

Mahonia x media 'Charity', which bloomed for the first time!

And this clematis, which I put in the ground in July, forgot to water, and thought I killed. It defied me by blooming through a hard frost and some of the heaviest rain we've had in ten years. Thank you Xera, for growing bullet-proof plants. This one is evergreen, turns bronze in the winter, and blooms November through February. I planted it outside my kitchen window where I can appreciate the hummingbirds covering it.

Clematis cirrhosa 'Wisley Cream'

Thank you to our host Carol at May Dreams Gardens. We really can have flowers almost any month of the year.

Garden bloggers' bloom day May 2015

Good lord, this is a bloomy month. Everything is blooming right on schedule, so I'll just show new plants or ones that I missed last year (or we'd be here all day).

Akebia longerracemosa 'Victor's Secret'

Papaver orientale 'Royal Wedding'

Camassia leichtlinii semiplena, Allium christophii, and Verbascum bombyciferum 'Arctic Summer'

Iris x pacifica 'Alison's pink lips'

Stipa barbata

Stipa gigantea

Parahebe perfoliata glows from across the yard

Verbascum bombyciferum 'Arctic Summer'

Disporum cantoniense 'Night Heron'

Erigeron glaucus 'Wayne Roderick' with Camassia quamash

Cistus obtusifolius

A very happy bloom day to you! Thanks, as always, to our host Carol at May Dream Gardens.